Re: [opensuse] Meta character

Hello,

On Sat, 09 Aug 2008, Anders Johansson wrote:
On Saturday 09 August 2008 13:03:32 Jose Thadeu Cavalcante wrote:
Hi,

In configuration of Desktop KDE 4.x/All Effects shortcuts appears the
term meta, what means it and how can I activated?

It depends a bit on your keyboard layout, but usually, "meta" is the
"alt" key on your keyboard

Alt != Meta

But, yes, the left Alt key is often (wrongly) used as Meta. man
xkeycaps is (or was) rather explicit:

==== man 1x xkeycaps ====
S.u.S.E. Linux is even more screwed up than HP
[..]
First, their default keymap has the Control modifier
attached to both the Control key and the Multi_key. This
is completely crazy, because not only is Multi_key not a
control key, it's not even a chording key! It mustn't
have any modifier bits attached to it at all.

Second, they attach Mod1 to Meta_L and also to Alt_R.
Some people think that ``meta'' and ``alt'' are synonyms,
but the fact is that the X Window System does not agree.
Those are distinct keys. It's possible to have both
``meta'' and ``alt'' keys on the keyboard at the same
time, and to have programs interpret them distinctly. But
of course only if they don't bogusly share the same modi­
fier bit, making the interpretation of that bit be ambigu­
ous.
[there's more yet]
====

BTW: I don't have any modifiers attached to the Multi_key (aka
Compose), and it works just as it's supposed to.

For example, in Emacs Alt (A-) is distinct from Meta (M-).

$ egrep 'Alt|Meta' ~/.Xmodmap
keycode 64 = Alt_L
keycode 113 = Alt_R
keycode 117 = Meta_R
add Mod1 = Meta_R
add Mod3 = Alt_L Alt_R

Escape (which I additionally have on the Caps-Key) functions as
Meta(_L) as well, at least in emacs etc.

And I have different functions attached to A-something and M-something
in emacs, e.g.:

M-r runs `move-to-window-line'
A-r runs `revert-buffer'
C-r runs `isearch-backward'
H-r is undefined

-dnh, the old Backronym in the sig has Meta _and_ Alt in there for a
reason...

--
92: Emacs
Esc Meta Alt Control Shift
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